Scientists claim to have found the most likely route for Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps – with his elephants – according to a new study.
The paper by Dr Emilio Berti of Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany, and Prof Fritz Vollrath of the University of Oxford makes the case that the Carthaginian warlord used the Col de la Traversette pass to enter Italy with his army.
This valley, which snakes through modern-day France and Italy, would have been the shortest available to the army – and therefore the one most likely to preserve Hannibal’s contingent of 37 African war elephants.
“The question of Hannibal’s exact route has been debated for generations,” said Berti.
“The new analysis does not eliminate all ambiguity, but it does strengthen the case for the Traversette route by demonstrating that it would better accommodate the demands of moving a large army that included elephants through extremely difficult alpine terrain.”
